Crazy Dish Lady

If you opened my cupboards, you would see something a little unusual.  I have a lot of individual plate/bowl/glass patterns and even a few unique spoons.  It's a food blogger thing.  Taking pictures of food on the same plates every day is boring ... so I have a bunch of individual pieces that I use for my breakfasts, lunches, or any time I am eating (or drinking) alone.  I do of course have complete sets, but they aren't as fun.

One of my favourite places to grab new pieces is Winners Home Sense.  They always have really nice dishes for great prices, and they can be purchased individually.  I picked up the above pieces the other day and am excited to use them this fall!  (Note: I am no where near ready for fall, so please stay away as long as possible).

Are you a crazy dish lady (or man) like me?  Do you have individual pieces that you use for special occasions or for blogging?  

(Before I ever started blogging I had a Hello Kitty plate, bowl and cup that were just for me!)

Monday Dinner with the Ladies

One of my best friends is moving away (for a year or so anyway), so last night I got together with three of my best girl friends for dinner and a visit.  We went to La Bodega, a popular restaurant in the city.  I've never been a huge fan of their overpriced food, but I was really happy with my entree last night.

I had the lamb enchilada.  It was very filling, and although this is a tapas restaurant, this portion for $14 was definitely entree sized.  It came with saffron rice, pico de gallo and guacamole.  

I liked that the lamb wasn't even a little bit gamey.  It was really well done, and I will probably order this any time I am back at this restaurant.  I had shared a meatball appetizer with my friend, so I ended up taking 1/2 of the lamb enchilada dish home with me - it made a good dinner again today!  

 

 

The meatballs turned out to be fish meatballs (I didn't read the menu very carefully I guess), and they were not very good at all.

I love getting together with my ladies during the week!  We will all see each other again this weekend for theh going-away party.

Other things I've been eating:

Kimchi Ramen with more kimchi on top

Chicken sandwich with tomato, pickles, mayo and mustard

And now for something completely random ...

I grabbed a coffee the other day and saw this awesome sign in the coffee shop :-)

Hehehehe.

 

Do you ever get together with friends during the week, for dinner or otherwise?

Do you like lamb?  Have you ever cooked it?

(I plan on cooking lamb in the near future, although I've never done it)

New Restaurant & Basic Frittata Recipe

Most of my weekend was spent either at home cooking, eating or sleeping or listening to music at the Folk Festival in a park downtown.  On Saturday I went for lunch to a new restaurant in the city called Bombay, an East Indian halal restaurant.  We ordered off the menu, which I would definitely recommend instead of getting the buffet which didn't seem to have that great of a selection.

I was incredibly impressed with the quality and taste of food.  I ordered chicken gorma, which is boneless chicken cooked with cashews and a mildly spiced sauce.  The owner recommended that I get the pershawri naan bread with it, and said that this bread had cherries and nuts in it.  I was skeptical, but went with his recommendation, and am I ever glad I did!  It was probably the best Indian food I have ever had, and that is not an exaggeration.

 

I cannot wait to go back for this same dish.  I also tried some of the Baigan Burtha (egg plant cooked with tomatoes, onions, green peas and spices), and it was also fabulous.  The food at this restaurant is not very spicy (even my friend Cori could eat it and she is a not a spice person), yet it is full of flavour. 

Yesterday I made a frittata for breakfast.  I didn't know how to make a frittata, so I decided to wing it and it turned out beautifully.

 

Basic Frittata

(serves 2)

1 T butter

Approx. 1 cup finely diced vegetables (I used mushroom, tomato, and green onion)

Approx. 1/2 cup grated cheese (I used aged gouda)

5 eggs

Approx. 1/4 cup milk or milk substitute (I used Almond milk)

Salt and Pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.  Heat 1 T butter in a oven-safe pan on medium.  Once sizzling, toss in the veggies and cook for a minute or two until softened up a bit.  In a bowl mix the eggs, milk, cheese and salt and pepper.  Pour into the pan and cook for about 3 minutes in the pan on medium, then transfer to the oven for 8 minutes.  Remove and cut into slices.

 

This morning's breakfast was something I hadn't had in ages - a vegan soft serve oat parfait.

Chocolate Oat Parfait with Maple Banana Soft Serve

1/3 cup quick oats

1 scoop chia seeds

1 T cocoa

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or any milk/substitute)

Mix the above ingredients and let sit for about 10-15 minutes (or overnight).  Stir it up and then layer in a glass with banana "soft serve".

Maple Banana Soft Serve

1 frozen banana broken into chunks

1 T  pure maple syrup or maple flakes

milk or almond milk (start with a few T and add more as needed)

Add all to a vita-mix or food processor and process until fluffy and soft-serve like.  Add more milk/substitute as needed.

 

I can't believe I only have a couple of weeks left before I go back to work :-(  My holidays always go by sooo quickly.  Luckily I still have some fun things planned before back-to-work day.  This week I am looking forward to dinner with friends, dinner with my dad, and my friends' wedding.  Next week will be spent camping!  I am so excited.  In between the fun I will be working on statistics for my thesis ...

What was the best thing that you ate this weekend?  Do you like Indian food?  What do you have going on for the rest of summer - anything exciting?

Fashion and Frivolity

Because my life doesn't completely revolve around food - okay, maybe it does ... but I do love fashion and being a little frivolous too. Some of my favourite finds this spring/summer include:

The cutest shoes ever!

From some random shoe store in Manhattan

I love skulls and fashion, as you can see in the scarf I got this spring:

Alexander McQueen (Black and White)

And the shirt I bought this summer (there is a skull cut out of the back):

You can get these shirts from a lot of stores - just google to find it.

White gold may be very popular, but I am way more into yellow gold.  I fell in love with this vintage ring in NY in April, and couldn't leave without it:

 

More recently I snagged this pretty necklace:

COACH - available online

My favourite fashion item of all has always been handbags.  I picked up a summery one back in April (the reddish/orange one) and a fall bag while I was in Vegas in July.  The big one is available at all times, but the smaller one was only out for a limited time in the colour shown; you can still buy it in other colours.

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton

Other frivolous items I am loving right now ...

Rihanna's Perfume "Rebelle"

Bacon flavoured Vodka that I just found!  (Naturally flavoured)

And because this is a food blog, I should leave you with a food picture.  I spent the morning at the farmers' market with a girlfriend of mine and picked up these beauties.  

 

The most fashionable vegetable around, in my opinion.

Like fashion posts?  Check out my sister's posts on How to Wear a Cropped Bustier, Wedding Style, and her Beauty Secrets for Summer.  I may have sicker dance moves than her (ahem, the unicorn), but she has better fashion sense for sure.  

What fashions are you loving this spring/summer?  Have you started buying clothes/accessories for the fall?  Have you purchased anything frivolous lately?

Weekend In

Aside from a Friday evening with friends and a trip to the movie theater to see Ted (which was awesome by the way), this long weekend was a lazy one spent at home sipping bevvies, watching movies, cooking at all hours (the BBQ was fired up around midnight on more than one occasion) and eating. 

If you haven't grilled halloumi cheese before, you have to try it!  It is a medium-firm cheese with a very high melting point.  You can grill it up until it is nice and brown and it won't melt.  It has a mild salty flavour, similar to feta but a little more mild.  It tasted great combined with portabella mushroom (the cheese is at the back of the plate beside the mushroom).  Also on the plate, shrimp, scallops and rainbow trout.

Dinner on Saturday night was a stuffed pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and salad.  

The pork was stuffed with garlic, gruyere cheese, basil and mushrooms.

One of my favourite meals of the weekend was kimchi hotdogs (BBQd hotdog with red onion, chopped kimchi, mayo, bacon and mustard).  The kimchi was perfect on the hotdog ... much better than sauerkraut. 

I tried making quiche for the first time, using this recipe.  I switched it up a bit, just using whatever veggies I had on hand, and replacing the cheese with Parmesan. 

Served with bacon and some cherries, it was a perfect, well rounded breakfast.  

 

 

As you may know already I like my bacon almost burnt.  If it bends instead of snapping, it is not done enough for me.

Some of the leftover bacon from the weekend was used on toasted tomato sandwiches today.

Have you ever grilled halloumi cheese?  Do you like hotdogs?  

What was the best thing you ate all weekend?

Weighing Ingredients & Citrus Pound Cake

Lately I have been using a kitchen scale when baking to weigh my ingredients for greater accuracy.  It is much easier than trying to measure exactly 5 tablespoons of butter, etc..

I baked some miniature pound cakes recently, 2 lime and 2 pink grapefruit.  I bake all year round.  Even if it is +40, I am still willing to turn my oven on; that's what air conditioning is for!

 

 

The pink grapefruit was my favourite.  I used this recipe (substituting lime for the grapefruit in the lime pound cakes).

Do you use a kitchen scale at all?  Have you been baking this summer, or do you save baking for cooler weather?

Summer Eats

 

My summer eats are often quite different than the hearty meals I eat when it's cooler outside.  I love dishes that don't require the oven, such as turkey done on a BBQ rotisserie.  

Patio lunches with friends ...

Lobster club sandwich at The Rooftop

And sandwiches ... I am totally loving sandwiches these days:

 

I grew the sprouts myself! (mango on the side)

If the sandwich has an egg on it ... even better.

 

Tomorrow I have another lunch planned with friends, and then dinner will be something done on the BBQ - not sure what yet though ... suggestions?

What is your favourite thing to BBQ?  

What are your "summer eats" like?